It's been almost a year and a half since the Parliamentary Health Commission visited the Algarve in December 2015, but the scenario that the deputies encountered does not seem to have changed much. The members of this Commission were a feel the pulse the health in the region yesterday and today, 20th and 21st of March, and they heard old concerns from sector entities and mayors, such as the chronic shortage of doctors, but also about the future of hospitals in the Algarve.
Although it is already certain that hospitals in the Algarve will have a new management model, it is not known when this will be applied. An "impasse" that, guarantees the PSD, is harming the performance of hospital units in the region. In the opposite direction, PS, PCP and BE say that the degradation is due to the policy of the previous Government.
The visit of this Committee of the Assembly of the Republic was requested by the PSD, whose deputy elected by the Algarve Cristóvão Norte argues that, despite the change of Government and Board of Directors of the Algarve Hospital Center (CHA), the situation has only deteriorated. if.
Cristóvão Norte has no doubts in stating that the National Health Service in the Algarve is worse today than it was about a year and a half ago, when the current Government took office. Proving it, he claims, are the data that are being released, such as the decrease in the number of surgeries performed in public hospitals, accompanied by an increase in the hiring of operations in private health units, and the maintenance of the shortage of doctors and internal dissatisfaction, which, recently, led to the resignation of four service directors.
To these issues, which were at the basis of the request made to the Commission to visit the Algarve, is added that of the management model of the CHA, whose change has been announced for a long time, although until now there have been no concrete measures.
“This model issue is at an impasse. It was said that this model did not fit. But it's been a year and a half and we have exactly the same model. We don't know what it will be”, illustrated Cristóvão Norte.
“The impasse causes uncertainty and doubt in the direction of the institution and in the decisions it must take. It even undermines the very authority of the Board of Directors. The four doctors who resigned as department directors pointed this out even when they were heard in the Parliamentary Health Commission,” he added.
The PSD does not reject the proposal that is currently on the table for the creation of a new entity, the Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Algarve, showing itself “willing to collaborate”.
Deputy Luís Graça, from the PS, defended that the current state of the Algarve hospitals results from the policy of the previous Government, "which destroyed the NHS in the Algarve", and that its resolution will not be easy. "As the representative of the Doctors' Union stated at yesterday's meeting, destroying is quick, it takes many years to recover", said the parliamentarian elected by Algarve.
For the socialist Luís Graça, the current government was able to “stop, in 2016, the great hemorrhage that took place in healthcare in the Algarve” and took “important measures” to try to solve the existing problems. "From the start, the investment of 11 million euros in the renovation of equipment and in the acquisition of technology for the three hospitals", he defended.
The new model proposed by the Government is also welcomed by the Socialist deputy. «The new model that is being built in partnership with the University of the Algarve provides for greater autonomy for the two hospital centers. Despite maintaining a single administration, the Hospitals of Faro and Barlavento Algarvio will have operational and, to some extent, financial autonomy, albeit reporting to a central administration. This is so that, when day-to-day problems arise, which require an immediate response, they do not depend on someone who is 80 kilometers away», he said.
For Paulo Sá, deputy of the PCP, the issue of the management model is not the most important, since he considers that what matters is the «recovery of the great degradation of the Algarve's health services».
«It is necessary to invest in the recovery of the Algarve's NHS, whether in terms of primary care, in Extensions and Health Centres, or in terms of hospitals», considered the communist parliamentarian.
«The Government has adopted, with the contribution of the PCP, some measures that we value and are positive. But they are limited and insufficient, more needs to be done. On this visit, we were able to see the need to deepen the measures adopted, as the SNS in the Algarve hit too deep», he considered.
Quite "skeptical" about the improvements that the proposed management model can bring is deputy João Vasconcelos, from the Left Bloc. «The inclusion of the University in this new model pleases us. But, even so, we are very skeptical about creating an even larger hospital center. It seems to us that it will continue to be a very heavy structure», he believes.
«We presented several Draft Resolutions, in the previous and in this legislature, in order to reverse the situation, providing the Algarve hospitals with operational and financial autonomy, with the allocation of more adequate technical and human resources. The PSD, the CDS and, in this case, the PS as well, did not understand this», he stressed.
The Blocist parliamentarian defends that the solution involves «placement of more doctors, more technicians, more nurses» and argues that «there must be more investment».
Deputy Teresa Caeiro, from the CDS-PP, elected by the Algarve circle on the lists of the PAF coalition, believes that the problem is not just the CHA and that it is urgent to invest in Primary Health Care, in order to reduce the pressure on hospitals.
«For me, the most important thing is to have the widest possible network of primary health care, which, if well developed, allows to respond to chronic patients and other situations, which, being monitored on a daily basis, allow to avoid going to the hospital», he defended.
In other words, “it is necessary to bet, above all, on prevention”, so that people do not feel so much the need to resort to hospital services, except in emergency situations or in search of specialized care.
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